We began and finished up the week at Six Mile Lake, a small but beautiful Provincial Park nestled not far from Georgian Bay on the shores of (no surprises here) Six Mile Lake. With the smooth rolling rock of the Precambrian shield, a sandy lake bottom and marshy beaver ponds, the varying environment makes this park home to several rare plant and reptile species. Sampling both the lake and marsh areas for aquatic invertebrates, as well performing plankton tows in Six Mile Lake, we found isopods and amphipods amongst the sediment, as well as damselfly larvae, copepods, Daphnia and water mites in the water column above.

Kate and I sampling in the marshes of Six Mile Lake Provincial ParkKate and I plankton sampling with the Schindler-Patalas trapThanushi canoeing for plankton samples on Six Mile Lake

We also spent some time speaking with visitors to the park, showing kids how to net insects in the grasses and shrubs, and sharing some fun facts about insects, sampling methods, our research and life aboard the BIObus.

Thanushi and I doing some public outreach at Six Mile Lake

On Wednesday morning, we caught a ride with Parks Canada from Honey Harbour over to Georgian Bay Islands National Park (GBINP), the world’s largest freshwater archipelago. Docking at Chimney Bay on Beausoleil Island, the largest island in the park, we set out to explore the famous granite shores of this southern region of the Canadian shield.

The whole team at Georgian Bay Islands National ParkPollinators abound at Chimney Bay on Beausoleil Island in GBINP!

Hearing nearby campers’ warnings of the presence of a somewhat aggressive Massasauga rattlesnake as well as of a family of black bears, we armed ourselves with a camera and went looking for both species. The campers most likely thought we were completely insane, as apparently we were expected to run for the hills at the news of these animals. Despite our best efforts, however, we weren’t lucky enough to spot either species. We did sample the shores of Fairy Lake as well as Chimney Bay itself, finding plenty of aquatic invertebrates in both locations. While performing the mustard extraction for soil invertebrates, I was lucky to find a surprising number of millipedes (12 within our 1 foot quadrat!). Not to be confused with centipedes, millipedes are part of the class Diplopoda (meaning two feet), and have two sets of jointed legs on each of their many body segments. Rolling up into a ball when frightened, these little guys seem to be arthropod versions of an armadillo!

A millipede parading across the rocks at Fairy Lake on Beausoleil Island in GBINP

Tune in again soon to hear all about our escapades in Awenda Provincial Park!

BIO Blitzes BioBlitzes

BIO Blitzes BioBlitzes

I recently got back from another fun weekend of BioBlitzing – this time in the Ojibway Prairie Complex (OPC). The OPC is the equivalent of a gold mine for discovering species that are new to science or Canada. At last year’s BioBlitz, BIO’s team of arachnologists found an astounding total of seven new species to Canada. This comes as even more of a surprise when considering that the OPC, comprised of five separate areas, totals only a meagre 834 acres. As the name implies, the OPC is predominated by a prairie biome. This is pretty unusual considering that most of the land mass in southern Ontario is forest. Most of the area has poorly drained, yellowish sandy soil over a significantly sized slice of clay. This allows the soil to be very saturated with water in spring but much drier in middle of the summer. This annual flux tends to favor grasses and wildflowers over trees which need a relatively stable environment to prosper. Due to this, the OPC is effectively maintained as a prairie and continues to provide great habitat for a variety of animals such as insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Before this summer, I had never even heard of a BioBlitz let alone volunteer in one. If you are in the same boat as I was, let me give you a quick overview. A BioBlitz is an event that involves taxonomic experts and the general public in a number of ways. Volunteers from both the professional and unprofessional domains can volunteer as public programmers, guided BioBlitz leaders, or intensive surveyors. Most of BIO’s employees volunteer as intensive surveyors. Their main goal is to identify, and if necessary collect, as many different species as possible within a certain time period. When I volunteer in BioBlitzes, I focus solely on spiders. But the public can volunteer in any taxon that interests them. One of the best things about volunteering in a BioBlitz is you get to rub shoulders with some incredibly knowledgeable biologists. I’ve already learned so much about spiders and other taxa from BioBlitzes alone. Depending on what taxon interests you, the identification methods used can be quite different.

Searching for wolf spiders in a pile of woodchips near the Ojibway Prairie Nature Centre https://goo.gl/mQZmF4

For example, experienced birders can usually identify species based on appearance and call, meaning that no birds actually need to be captured. Unfortunately, identifying spiders isn’t so easy and usually hundreds and hundreds of spiders must be collected for later identification under a microscope. So while other groups get to finish early, the spider team has to keep working until the early morning. At the BioBlitz in the OPC, the spider team was sorting and identifying until 4:00am! The identification period may take up to several months but once all the data has come in, every recorded species is put into a master list for the entire area; essentially giving us an inventory of what lives in that ecosystem!

To finish off, let me give you a case of the heebie-jeebies with one mean looking spider. I present to you, the Black purse-web Spider (Sphodros niger). This rare spider is about the size of a toonie and has very interesting chelicerae (i.e. fangs). The chelicerae of most spiders open and close like the pincers of ants. But the chelicerae of primitive purse-web spiders fall directly down on their prey. Think of a hammer coming down on a nail and that’s a pretty good metaphor for purse-web spiders biting their prey. If you’re an arachnophobe, you need not fear. These spiders prefer to hang out in cozy retreats near the bases of trees. The males only wander out into the forest when it’s time to mate and they need to find a female.

The rare Black purse-web spider (Sphodros niger) was found during the OPC BioBlitz! http://goo.gl/C3Mm5bLook at those fangs! https://goo.gl/KU64pD

Before I sign off, here’s a quick joke. How do spiders communicate? Through the World Wide Web.
Thanks for reading,
JP